Tackling plastics pollution

Two University of Delaware students from completely different backgrounds recently found common ground in a simple question: Where could they find opportunities to use plastics more sustainably in their daily lives?

Caitlyn Edgar, a graduate student studying materials science, knew immediately what to focus on. She trained in ballet for more than 10 years before starting her undergraduate studies at UD. She knows that ballet shoes have short life spans.

The ballet shoes that allowed Edgar to tiptoe "en pointe" and perform intricate footwork only lasted about a month, before they no longer had the strength and flexibility needed to protect her ankles. Professional dancers who train and perform on a daily basis, meanwhile, can expect to need new shoes every day, she said.

That's a lot of spent shoes when you consider that Freed of London, a major manufacturer of pointe shoes, produces 250,000 pairs per year - and that's just one such specialty shoemaker. Recycling efforts are complex and problematic, given that the shoes are carefully pieced together layers of multiple materials.

Edgar's classmate, Lars Lefkowitz, a junior chemical engineering major, thought of fishing and the plastic fishing line and bobbers often used and left behind in and near the waterways of Planet Earth - an estimated 640,000 tons every year. This is the combined weight of over 106,000 average elephants. He wondered how could those products be reimagined in ways that degrade naturally and do no harm to the environment and other living creatures?

The students and their peers pondered such solutions in a materials science and engineering course called "Plastics Sustainability," co-taught by LaShanda Korley, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Katie Herbert, director of education, outreach and research engagement for the Center for Plastics Innovation that Korley directs.

Korley is a global leader in the sustainable use of polymers, especially in plastics. A 2023 U.S. Science Envoy, she has championed the effort to keep plastics and the valuable materials incorporated in them out of landfills, waterways and out of trash wherever it is tossed.

Further, Korley and her many collaborators aim to move the plastics economy toward a circular economy, where the valuable elements incorporated into plastic products are either recycled to be reused or broken down into their original components, capable of being reconfigured or repurposed in new ways.

In her presentation, Edgar compared three commonly used ballet shoe brands - the Nikolay, made of cardboard, fabric and adhesive; the Gaynor Minden, which replaces the cardboard with plastics and microcellular urethane foam; and the Act'ble, which has four replaceable parts and lasts about five times longer than a traditional shoe. She described the materials used in them, whether those materials could be repurposed or recycled, the relative cost of the shoes and whether they could be rebuilt.

Lefkowitz, of Fallston, Maryland, described his quest to find or develop sustainable fishing lines and bobbers. There are products on the market that claim to be environmentally friendly and safe, he said. Some are better than others. When he looked into patent information on one product, for example, he found questionable ingredients that may degrade but will still leave microplastics in their wake.

"We can do better," he said. He is working on doing just that, developing a prototype lure that will degrade without a trace.

Training tomorrow's innovators

The "Plastics Sustainability" syllabus was designed to provide students a depth of knowledge on the history of plastics, the problem of plastics pollution, the chemistry and properties of various plastics, the many ways plastics are used, environmental effects, perspectives on plastics around the world, how plastics are sorted, managing plastics waste, approaches to recycling, and sustainable packaging, along with implications for policy, economics and consumer education.

As she listened to the presentations, Korley saw opportunities emerging for entrepreneurship, advances in industry and more.

"I was immensely in awe of the way students translated the knowledge learned in the course to their individual sustainability interests, enriched by their unique life experiences and future goals," she said.

Edgar, from Washingtonville, New York, said she was drawn to materials science when she and her father, a chemical engineer, were exploring where she might want to go to college. He got her a book showing how different majors could be applied in many different fields.

When she stumbled upon materials science, it seemed a perfect fit for her love of chemistry and her affinity for math and science.

"Materials science offered an opportunity to make a real difference," Edgar said. "I knew there was a lot of infrastructure at UD for sustainability, and I wanted to make an impact like that all along."

The Plastics Sustainability class is one example.

"I really enjoyed that we have the resources to learn about this," Edgar said. "Dr. Korley is such an expert in this area and understands the issue as a whole, how complex it is."

Lefkowitz, who has a minor in materials science, said he got a lot of his love for science from his father, who is a chemist. He used to read his dad's old chemistry textbooks and Science magazines, he said. His dad taught him to fish, too. And his grandfather, a mechanical engineer, has been instrumental in Lefkowitz's passion for engineering. When Lefkowitz needed an injection molder to produce his "demo" lure, his grandfather helped him build it.

His prototypes aren't ready for cameras yet, Lefkowitz said, but he has "zero doubt" they will work. He has already had blue gills biting his lure. Things look promising, he said. He believes his lures and bobbers will completely degrade within a year, leaving nothing harmful behind.

Other students presented fascinating ideas from their own lives. One created a video about the importance of plastics in agriculture, for example. Another created a fashion lifecycle calculator to predict the lifespan of a garment as well as its end-of-life options.

Herbert said she particularly enjoyed watching students use pieces of the class content to directly pose solutions to, draw attention to, or better understand sustainability challenges that are impacting their own lives.

"Courses are meant to provide tools for the next generation of problem solvers and to see these tools used so creatively at the end of the class was inspirational," she said. "Their curiosity and commitment to finding answers certainly inspires hope for a more sustainable future."

Lefkowitz is exploring helping out at one of the youth fishing programs at a state park in Maryland or Delaware this summer.

After finishing her master's degree in May, Edgar hopes to explore opportunities in industry.

"Long-term impact is still on my mind," she said.